Please help, I pulled up my carpeting in one of my closest and I have beautiful Pine Hardware floors, but when they installed the carpet they used staples and the carpet tack strips are nailed to the flooring. I am lost on how to remove these. I know it will be time consuming. My home was built in the late 1950's and the hardware floors appear to be in good shape, but I first need help on tearing up the carpet!

Thanks!

Use a pair of pliers to grab a piece of the carpet in a corner and pull it up, then you can easily pull it up off the tacks all along the room edges with your hands. Roll it up & remove it.

Leave the padding down until you've removed the staples. Use a small flat screwdriver (or what I call my "staple plucker" - which looks like a very flat screwdriver with two curved heads) to pop the staples out. Then roll the padding up. Much easier and less cleanup effort needed when you pluck the staples first.

Use a crowbar to pull up the tack strips around the edges. If you have trouble getting the beveled edge of the crowbar under the strip, use a rigid, wide blade putty knife to get them started. It has a thinner/finer edge and is easier to work under the tighter strips.